Hydraulic safety valve, especially adapted for tank trucks, tank cars, and the like



Jan 2-7, 1925. 1,524,054

, ESPECIALLY ADAPTED FOR W. S. PENFIELD HYDRAULIC SAFETY VALVE AND THELIKE 1924 3 Sheets-Sheet l TANK TRU TANK CARS Filed Jan. 5,

Jim 2151501 Jan. 1,524,054

E,ESPECIALLY ADAPTED FOR S. PENF'iELD HYDRAULIC SAFETY VALV TANK TRUCKSTANK CARS AND THE LIKE Filed Jan. 5, 1924 3 Sheets-Sheet 2 Jfivenziar./wzzzw J. uw za/ attorneys W. S. PENFIELD HYDRAULIC SAFETYVALVE,ESPECIALLY ADAPTED FOR TANK TRU TANK CARS, AND THE LIKE Filed Jan.5, 1924 3 Sheets-Sheet s AW ITW [Em endow.

o". flap 4 Z3 My m l ii tented Jan. 27, 1925.

UNITED STATES 1,524,054 PATENT OFFICE.

WILLIAM s. PENFIELD; on .SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORINIA.

nymmumc SAFETY VALVE, ESPECIALLY ADAP'IED- FOR TANK TRUCKS, TANK cans,

. AND THE LIKE.

Application med January 3, 1924. .Serial No. 684,156.

To all whom it may concern: I

Be it known that I, WILLIAM S. PEN- FIELD, a citizen of the UnitedStates, residing at city and county of San Francisco and State ofCalifornia, have invented certain new and useful Improvements inHydraulic Safety Valves, Especially Adapted for Tank Trucks, Tank Cars,and the like, of which the following is a specification.

My invention relates to safety valves for controllin the outlets offluid containing tanks, an is particularly adapted for use ontank-trucks or tank-ears and other tankvehicles.

The object of my invention is to provide a simple apparatus by which theflow of fluid from a tank may be shut off at the outlet of the tankitself, and which is independent of the regular delivery valves orfaucets of the tank. This is of particular advantage in tank-trucks,which usually have their delivery, faucets at the rear end forconvenience in drawing off the contents. Such faucets are necessarily inan exposed position, and are liable to be damaged or broken off as aresult of a collision, in which case the contents of the tank escapesand is lost; and where such tank-trucks are used for carrying gasoline,the fire hazard involved in such an accident is very great. The samething applies to railway tank- CSLIS'.

In the apparatus embodying my present invention, the outlet of the tankmade in the wall thereof is closed by a valve located at such outlet,and preferably wholly housed within the tank itself, so that it cannotbe injured or rendered inoperative except through the destruction of thewalls of the tank; and said valve is controlled, simply and quickly, bydevices which may be conveniently located in any position on thevehicle. Moreover, my valve is automatically closed, preferably by meanscontained within the tank, so that, even if the exterior control devicesincluded in said means are damaged along with the delivery faucets, thevalve at once closes, automatically, to prevent the discharge of thecontents of the tank.

My invention will be described, and'is herewith illustrated. as appliedto a tanktruck of the usual type employed ,for de livering gasoline, andhaving three separate compartments. It will be apparent, however, thatthe invention is. equally applicable to tank-vehicles of other types. Itis to be understood, moreover, that the form and construction of theapparatus may be varied from that shown and described, within the limitsof theclaims hereto appended, without departing from the spirit of theinvention as expressed in said claims.

With this in view a preferred embodiment of my invention will now befully described with reference to the accompanyin drawings, wl1erein-Tig. 1 is a side elevation, partly broken away, of the body of atank-truck equipped with my safety valves.

Fig. 2 is a diagrammatic plan of the piping for the'sa-me.

Fig. 3 is a central vertical section, en-

larged, of one of the valves, and is taken on the line 3-3 of Fig. 4.

Fig. 4 is a plan view of the same.

Fig. 5 is .a sectional plan of the same, taken on the line 5-5 of Fig.3.

v Fig. 6 is a vertical section of the control device.

Figs. 7, 8 and 9 are sections taken respectively on'the lines 7-7, 88,and 99 of-Fig. 6, and viewed in the direction of the arrows.

In the drawings, and referring for the moment to Fig. 1 thereof, thereference numeral 1O designates the body or frame of a truck, on whichis mounted a. tank 11 divided into three compartments by partitions 12,each such compartment having the usual delivery pipe 13 extending to therear of the truck, as indicated in Fig. 2. Said delivery pipes 13 may beprovided with any suitable faucet or other control device, not shown,for permitting the withdrawal -of the contents of the tank 11 in theusual manner.

Each compartment of the tank 11 is provided with a safety valve device14, Fig. 1, one of which is shown in detail in Figs. 3, 4 and 5. Forconvenience in mounting the valve device 14; in previously constructedtanks, I prefer to provide a collar 15, Fig. 3, which is welded in ahole cut in the bottom of the tank, and .to which is bolted, from theoutside. a. flange 16, said flange carrying the valve device 14. By thismeans the valve device can be inserted from the outside-withoutthenecessity of providing a man-hole in the tank to enable a workman toenter it.

The delivery pipe 13 is secured, in any suitable manner, to the flange16. The valve device 14, which extends upwardly from said flange 16 andis secured thereto by bolts 17, Fig. 4, is provided with a valve seat18, Fig. 3, above the delivery pipe 13. A valve 19-cooperates with saidseat, and is carried on a vertically movable stem 20, which passesthrough suitable packing 21 into a cylinder 22, and carries a piston 23operable in said cylinder A cap 24 closes the upper end'of the cylinder22, to prevent the tank fluid from entering it, and a spring 25 isinterposed between said cap and the piston 23, said spring normallyholding the valve 19 to its seat 18, thereby closing the outlet to thedelivery pipe 13 to prevent the tank fluid from escaping into saiddelivery 1 p l he space above the valve 19 is, of course, open to thetank fluid, the cylinder 22 being supported upon legs 26, as shown inFigs. 3, 4, and 5. A vent passage 27 extends from the upper portion ofthe cylinder 22 through one of said legs and through the flange 16 tothe outside, to prevent compression in said cylinder aboveits piston 23.A passage 28 is formed in the other leg 26, through which fluid underpressure may be admitted to the cylinder 22 below the piston 23, for thepurpose of opening the valve. A pipe 29 connects with said passage 28through a suitable aperture in the flange 16, as shown. Thus when fluidunder pressure is admitted to the cylinder 22 through said ipe 29 andpassage 28, the valve 19 is raised from its'seat 18, and the deliverypipe 13 thereby opening, and when said fluid pressure is relieved, thespring 25 immediately closes said valve. The legs :36 are preferablyprovided with guides 30, between which the valve 19 operates The pipes29 for supplying the pressure third to the valve devices 11 may be ledto one or more convenient positions on the vehicle. and connected withcontrol devices 31, which will be full described hereinafter. In Fig. 1of the rawings, I have shown two such control devices 31, one positionedat the rear of the vehicle in proximity to the delivery ends of the tankpipes 13, and the ot her mounted on the dash-board 32, so that the,driver of the vehicle may operate the safety-valves without leaving hisseat. In order that each control device 31 may be used to operate any orall of the valves, there should he provided some suitable selectiveconnecting device, which, for purposes of illustration, I have shown ascomprising a manifold 33 in proximity to each control device 31, theseveral pressure lines 29 leading to both manifolds 33, as indicated inFig.

2, and provided with independent valves or stop-cocks 34 at eachmanifold. The manifolds 33 are connected to the control devices 31 by pis 35 and 36 as will be presently described One of the control devices31, both of which are identical, is illustrated in detail in Figs. 6, 7,8 and 9. It comprises a reservoir 37 for containing a supply of theoperatii or pressure fluid, which may be any suitab e liquid such as oilor glycerin. The reservoir 37 has a filling plug 38 for renewal of theoperating liquid, but as such liquidis returned to said reservoir fromthe valve operating cylinders 22, its renewal is necessary only tocompensate for accidental leakage.

lVithin the reservoir 37 is a pump cylinder 39, in which is a piston orplunger 40 operated manually by an exterior handle or knob 41. Theliquid is admitted to the pump cylinder 39 from the reservoir 37, whenthe piston -10 'is witlulrawn, through a check valve 42, and is forcedout, when said piston is pushed in, through a check valve 43 and thepipe 35 leading to the manifold 33. Fronrsaid manifold the liquid flowsthrough any on all of the pressure lines 29, depending on the settingsof the stop-cocks 3%, to the cylinders 22 of the respective valves 19,and said valves are thereby opened. Inasmuch as the system is at alltimes full, it requires only one, or at most a very few strokes of thepumppiston 40 to open the tank valves 19, and as the liquid is trappedby the check valve 43, said tank valves are held open, by the pressureof the liquid, until it is released by the operator.

For etiecting such pressure release, to permit the tank valves 19 to beclosed by their springs 25, each control device 31 is provided with astop-cock 44 in the pipe 36 leading from the manifold 33, as shown in Fl5. 1 and (i, said stop-cock or release valve 44 HIV- ing a pipe 4.3,Figs. 1, 6 and 7 leading back into the reservoir 37. The release valve44 is manually operated by a rod 46 and a conveniently located handle17. Thus by opening the release valve 41 by means of its handle 47, thepressure fluid is allowed to flow back into the reservoir 37, and thesprings 25 are permitted to close the tank valves 19.

It will be apparent from the foregoin that the tank-valves 19 will beinstantly ant positively closed bv their springs 25 in the event of anyaccident to the pressure lines 29, the apparatus being automatic to thisextent. It should also be noted that there are no moving parts exceptthe pump lunger and the valves themselves, thus oin away with thenecessity for cumbersome an noisy rods or other mechanical connectionsfor operating the safety tank-valves.

I claim:

1. A vehicle having a tank with a fluid outlet in its wall; a fluiddelivery pipe fitted to said outlet and thence extending exteriorly ofthe tank to the point of discharge; a valve wholly housed within thetank and adapted to control said fluid outlet; fluid actuatedconnections for operating said valve; and members comprised in saidconnections, lying exterior to the tank and proximate the discharge endof the delivery pipe, adapted to automatically effect the closing of thevalve in case the fluid connections are impaired by injur to saidexterior members.

2. A vehicle having a tank with a fluid outlet in its wall; a fluiddelivery pipe fitted to said outlet and thence extending exteriorly ofthe tank to the point of discharge; a valve wholly housed within thetank and adapted to control said fluid outlet; fluid actuatedconnections for operating said valve; a liquid containing reservoirexterior to the tank and in proximity to the discharge end of the tankdelivery pipe; a pump included in said reservoir for drawing liquidtherefrom, and a pipe connecting said pump with the'fluid actuatingconnections of the outlet-controlling valve.

3. A vehicle having a tank divided into a plurality of compartments,each with a fluid outlet in its wall; a plurality of delivery pipes, onefitted to each of sad outlets and each pipe thence extending exteriorlyof the tank to the point of discharge; a plurality of valves oneassociated with and adapted to control its respective fluid outlet;fluid actuated connections associated with each oif said valves; andmeans for selectively distributing the actuating fluid to each of saidconnections.

4. A vehicle having a tank divided into a plurality of compartments,each with a fluid outlet in its wall; a plurality of delivery pipes onefitted to each of said outlets and each pipe thence extending exteriorlyof the tank to the point of discharge; a plurality of valves oneassociated with and adapted to control its respective fluid outlet;fluid actuated connections associated with .eachof said valves; meansfor selectively distributing the actuating fluid to each of saidconnections; means for releasing the pressure of said actuating fluid;and means for automatically closing the valves upon the release of saidpressure.

In testimony whereof I have signed my name to this specification.

WILLIAM S. PENFIELD.

